deliquesce

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

intransitive v. To melt away.

intransitive v. To disappear as if by melting.

intransitive v. Chemistry To dissolve and become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air.

intransitive v. Botany To branch out into numerous subdivisions that lack a main axis, as the stem of an elm.

intransitive v. Botany To become fluid or soft on maturing, as certain fungi.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

v. To melt and disappear.

v. To become liquid by absorbing water from the atmosphere.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

intransitive v. To dissolve gradually and become liquid by attracting and absorbing moisture from the air, as certain salts, acids, and alkalies.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To melt or dissolve gradually, or become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air, as certain salts; melt away.

In vegetable histology, to liquefy or melt away gradually, as part of the normal process of growth: said of certain tissues, especially the gills of fungi of the genus Coprinus. It differs from the analogous process in salts, being a vital phenomenon.

Etymologies

(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

In first place is "I, Raptor" by Brenda Levy Tate of Pen Shells; in second "deliquesce" by Lynze of Salt Dreams, and in third place, Susan B. McDonough's poem "Double Vision" workshopped at Blueline Poetry Forum.

The old local order has been broken up or is now being broken up all over the earth, and everywhere societies deliquesce, everywhere men are afloat amidst the wreckage of their flooded conventions, and still tremendously unaware of the thing that has happened.